Kaduna State Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, Alhaji Shehu Muhammad, has described the revenue generation profile of the local governments (LGs) in the state as ‘disheartening’, saying they could hardly raise up to 50 per cent of the expected revenue in 2021.
Muhammad disclose this at a one-day Public Policy Dialogue with theme “Strengthening Local Government Fiscal Sustainability and Service Delivery in Kaduna State,” held on Thursday in Kaduna.
The dialogue was organised by the Local Government Accountability Mechanism (LGAM) in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government Affairs and Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL).
“This makes the local governments perpetually depend on the federation account to survive which is very dangerous and unproductive as far as grassroots development is concerned.
“The key to proving leadership capability is changing the revenue profile for the betterment of the grassroots; you can’t do any project without resources.
“No consultant can help you raise the revenue profile in your LGAs, you have to do it yourself. You all went round during campaign, so you know your terrains and so should come up with ideas to tackle the challenges.
“The challenges were the key issues you were questioned and examined on when you applied for the local government chairmanship seat in your respective LGAs,” he said.
Muhammad said community participation in governance was also key to achieving successes in local government administration.
According to him, meaningful contributions and comments could come from town hall meetings which could be considered and further serve as solutions to some of the challenges.
